Afghan insurgents shoot down Nato chopper; one dead

Insurgents shot down a Nato helicopter Saturday in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan where fighting has intensified, and one foreign service member was killed, the alliance said. The US-led military coalition said the death of the service member was related to the chopper crash in Alasay district of Kapisa province, but that the dead trooper was not aboard the aircraft.
The only two crew members were recovered alive, it said. No further details have been disclosed about the crash, which is under investigation. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone call txat Taliban insurgents shot down the helicopter with a rocket. He said other coalition helicopters later flew to the crash site. Aziz Rahman Tawab, acting provincial governor in Kapisa province, said the helicopter crashed into the side of a mountain.
Aircraft are used extensively in Afghanistan` by both Nato and Afghan government forces to transport and supply troops because the terrain is mountainous and roads are few and primitive. In September, a helicopter crash in a rugged area of Zabul province in southern Afghanistan killed nine American troops. Fighting has escalated in the east as Afghan and coalition forces step up their attacks on insurgents along the Pakistani border and militants retaliate with attacks on pro-government forces and Afghan officials.
Afghan forces killed eight insurgents in a gunbattle Friday in the Pech Valley area of eastern Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, the Afghan Defence Ministry said Saturday. The Interior Ministry said militants ambushed an Afghan police vehicle on Saturday, killing two policemen and wounding two others in Dara Nur district of Nangarhar province.
Also in the east, a suicide attacker on foot detonated a vest packed with explosives Friday afternoon at the entrance to a building used b} education officials in Jayi Maydan district of Khost province, said Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, the provincial police chief. The bomber died in the attack and four people were wounded, including the district education director and a principal, he said.